Month: January 2017

The Iranian government is to stop using the US dollar in its official statements, according to a report in the local English-language daily the Financial Tribune. The decision was announced by Central Bank of Iran governor Valiollah Seif during a television interview on the evening of January 29 and, according to the paper, is due to take effect from the start of the new fiscal year on 21 March. It will affect all official financial…

From WaPo In jagged black strokes, President Trump’s signature was scribbled onto a catalogue of executive orders over the past 10 days that translated the hard-line promises of his campaign into the policies of his government. The directives bore Trump’s name, but another man’s fingerprints were also on nearly all of them: Jeff Sessions. In an email in response to a request from The Washington Post, Bannon described Sessions as “the clearinghouse for policy and philosophy”…

Myron Ebell, who has denied the dangers of climate change for many years and led Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency until the president’s recent inauguration, also said he fully expected Trump to keep his promise to withdraw the US from the global agreement to fight global warming. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/01/myron-ebell-paris-climate-agreement The environmental movement is “the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world,” according to an adviser to the US president Donald…

Dear Mr. Donald Trump, I originally wrote this on Inauguration Day, but I have changed my mind. Rather than just being simply impeachable, it has become clear to me that you are surrounding yourself with fascists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. You are consolidating power, attacking the media, and trying to keep minorities away. Now, I’d like to educate you on something that you may hear about frequently in the coming months. Article II…

Do you remember during the Bush presidency when everyone was concerned about how evil Dick Cheney seemed to be? Well, Trump has at least two people worse than that in the White House. Neither them are people who need to be confirmed by the Senate. Politico has a good write up on Stephen Miller. I am here to talk about Steve Bannon. A lot of you may wonder how an alt-right sensationalist online newspaper CEO…

While the Muslim Ban is a terrible thing that is happening, a judge has temporarily stopped it from happening. The Executive Order signed today is the big story. I’m not talking about the anti-Lobbying one because this is an occasion where he gets it right. I am talking about this Executive Order. This order reshuffles the National Security Council and downgrades the Director of National Intelligence as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs…

“Give him a chance, he is not even president yet,” was the mantra of all his supporters after the election. Ok, he has been president for a week now and has already upended our entire political system. Mike Pence, Christian theocrat extraordinaire would be a better President. At least he has principles and respects the office of the Presidency. There is nothing wrong with loving your country or even being a little nationalistic. But, when…

On an interview with the Brody File today, Trump continued his war against the Media by calling them the “Opposition Party,’ which is an authoritarian tactic that Putin uses, AND he explicitly said he would be prioritizing Christians in the refugee program, that he was cutting the accepted refugees in half, and that he was banning Muslims. He also met with Theresa May today, and managed not to sound like a total authoritarian. He did…

A lobbyist for a utility company that heavily relies on coal-fueled power plants and has clashed with regulators is the new acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice division that oversees environmental crimes. The appointment of Jeffery H. Wood, who up until last week was a lobbyist for Southern Company, was announced only with a modest notice posted on January 23 on the Environment and Natural Resource Division’s website. WHY DOES COAL HAVE…

We’re all tired of hearing about Trump’s obvious ties to Russia, because nobody is going to come out and say that they’re real…but I just came across something interesting and I had to share it. According to Reuters, Putin recently sold 19.5% of Rosneft to a consortium of unknown buyers. Does anyone remember the Dossier which was supposedly fake? One of the claims was that Trump would lift Russian sanctions (Which he plans on doing)…